Air Vice Marshal KH Larkins and his brother Major General FD Larkins were convicted in 1985 for selling MiG secrets to the CIA. The brothers got bail after their conviction but vanished soon after. They have not been traced since, leaving a dark mystery behind their high-profile betrayal of India.
Convicted in 1985 for selling classified MiG manuals and Army intelligence to CIA operatives in New Delhi, retired Air Vice Marshal KH Larkins and his brother Maj Gen FD Larkins jumped bail.
A Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF) was recently in the news for being accused of passing secret and classified information to a Pakistani intelligence operative after being honey-trapped. While the internet has made recruiting spies easier, the traditional enticement of money remains the primary driving force behind betraying one's own country.
In this week's column, we revisit the case of one of the highest-ranking IAF officers ever caught spying. Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Kenneth Hubert Larkins, along with his brother Major General Frank D Larkins, were caught and convicted of spying for the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the early 1980s. Interestingly, both went missing after being released on bail a few years later when the High Court confirmed their conviction, and they have not been traced ever since.
Decorated career and 1983 sting operation
Air Vice Marshal Larkins was a pilot commissioned in September 1948. An alumnus of the Defence Services Staff College and the National Defence College, he commanded the No. 6 Elementary Flying Training Unit in Patiala as a Wing Commander and later served as Air Officer Commanding (AOC), 12 Wing, in Chandigarh as an Air Commodore. He retired in 1980 while serving as AOC Jammu and Kashmir.
The Larkins brothers were arrested in 1983 alongside Lt Col Jasbir Singh and a civilian, Jaspal Singh Gill, on allegations of spying; subsequently, on appeal, Lt Col Jasbir and Jaspal Singh were acquitted by the High Court. The chain of events began in November 1983 when Air Vice Marshal (later Air Marshal) S Raghvendran sent a complaint to the commissioner of police.
He alleged that in March that year, Group Captain (later Air Commodore) Jasjit Singh told him that AVM Larkins, under whom he had previously served, was inducing him to pass on secret aircraft manuals used by the IAF, offering Rs 20,000 per document.
The matter was brought to the notice of superior officers, and with their approval, Group Captain Jasjit Singh was permitted to pass on a manual pertaining to aircraft bids to Larkins so that the full ramifications of the matter and details of the foreign intelligence network could be ascertained. Surveillance on AVM KH Larkins subsequently uncovered his links with his brother, Major General FD Larkins.
An FIR was registered at the Tughlak Road police station in New Delhi, leading to raids on November 11, 1983, at both brothers' residences. The searches yielded two incriminating books marked 'restricted' and two photostat leaflets marked 'secret', alongside 18 bottles of foreign liquor and an unlicensed 12-bore gun.
CIA handlers, MiG manuals, and diplomatic expulsions
Soon after their arrest, Maj Gen Larkins made a confessional statement admitting he had hatched a conspiracy with his brother for monetary gain in collusion with CIA agents operating under the cover names Jockey, Ben, John, and Bud.
The US operatives sought critical military intelligence from Maj Gen Larkins, including who would become the next Chief of Army Staff, whether night convoys were plying between Srinagar and Leh, details of officers and their ranks sent abroad for specialised training on new equipment, and information regarding Russian technicians stationed in India to train Indian Army personnel on new Russian equipment.
Around November or December 1982, the agent known as 'John' asked Maj Gen Larkins for Air Force technical manuals pertaining to the MiG-21, MiG-23, and MiG-25, valued at Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000 per manual. Maj Gen Larkins relayed the requirement to his brother, who procured the manuals and handed them over to the CIA officials. Investigations further revealed that AVM Larkins frequently visited Air Headquarters in New Delhi, contacting juniors and erstwhile colleagues to discuss topics his brother had requested information on.
Authorities later identified the US officials behind the aliases: 'Jockey' was Fafeal Mariani, an Attache at the US Embassy; 'Ben' was Raynold Frederick Stellch, Assistant Attache at the US Embassy; 'John' was Harry L Wetherbe, another US Embassy Attache; and 'Bud' was Major Paul McKinley Pittman Jr. All four were declared persona non grata by the Indian government and expelled from the country.
Conviction, bail, and disappearance without a trace
Several IAF officers deposed during the trial of the Larkins brothers, including Group Captain DK Dhiman, Group Captain AK Singh, Air Vice Marshal DE Satur, Air Commodore DS Jog, Wing Commander AS Negi, Air Commodore L Allen, and Group Captain Ashok Goel.
In 1985, both brothers were sentenced to ten years of rigorous imprisonment and were later released on bail in 1989. Their appeal in the Delhi High Court was dismissed in 2001, and a subsequent appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court in 2003, which ordered them to surrender and serve the remainder of their sentence. However, the brothers were nowhere to be found and have remained missing to this day.